The Columbus Free Press

New Party Online News - November 1996

Running to Win

New Party members are busy knocking on doors, hammering down lawn signs, and phoning voters to support NP candidates this fall. Here are some of our key races:

Arkansas: The Little Rock New Party has a full slate of candidates up for election in November. LRNP steering committee member Michael Booker is running unopposed for re-election to the Arkansas State House. Two NP members -- Paul Kelly and Genevieve Stewart -- are running for at-large (city-wide) city council positions. And in a head-to-head battle between the New Party and the conservative right, NP member Jayne Cia faces the Arkansas state chair of Empower America (Jack Kemp and Bill Bennett's organization) for a Justice of the Peace (county board) position.

Maryland: Two New Party members are up for school board seats this fall: Doyle Niemann in Prince George's County and Dan Parr in Montgomery County.

Minnesota: Despite the successful effort by conservative Democratic Party forces to deny Progressive Minnesota the opportunity to use fusion this fall, the state legislative candidates that sought our nomination still see themselves as Progressive Minnesota candidates, and we're still backing them in the general election. PM/NP endorsed candidates include Ellen Anderson, Karen Clark, Andy Dawkins, Linda Higgins, and Sandy Pappas. Progressive Minnesota has also endorsed Green Party State Assembly candidate Cam Gordon.

New York: The New Party of Long Island is backing three candidates for office this Fall: State Assembly candidate Tom DiNapoli and Congressional candidates Carolyn McCarthy and Nora Bredes. NP members collected the necessary signatures to nominate progressive Democratic Assemblyman Tom DiNapoli on the New Party line, making this the first Democratic Party/New Party fusion effort. The chapter is supporting a major voter registration drive in African-American and Hispanic communities in McCarthy's district.

Washington, DC: DC New Democracy/NP is backing ten candidates for Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (Almedith Bass-Williams, John Jordan, Laine McRaney, Henry Fernandez, Todd Mosley, Daniel Rosenberg, Gerry Lorentz, Will Hill, Dennis Dolinger, Violet Hewlett), neighborhood-based councils that represent community concerns to the mayor and city council. In addition, DCND is recruiting candidates to run write-in campaigns in some of the 80-odd ANC races with no candidate.

Wisconsin: In addition to the four Progressive Milwaukee-backed candidates running for state office (Spencer Coggs, Dale Dulberger, Gwendolynne Moore, Johnnie Morris-Tatum, see Sept Update), two New Party members in Fox Valley are running for the state assembly. Progressive Fox Valley founder and chair Tony Palmeri is in a surprisingly close race against an four-term incumbent conservative Republican in Oshkosh. New Party and AFSCME (American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees) member Corky Van Handel is also running for the state assembly in a nearby district. Both are running as Democrats.

Membership Growth

September was the New Party's all-time high month for membership recruitment -- more than 1000 new members joined! Welcome aboard.

As before, we encourage you to continue send us whatever names you can -- whether it's 10, 100, or 1000. Every little bit counts, and this is an extremely inexpensive way for us to get the word out about our work.